A polymer is a chemical compound that contains a large number of identical molecular repeating units. A plastic material is a polymer, typically modified with additives, which can be molded or shaped ...

Little pieces of polymer plastic. The plastics industry is trying to be as clean as possible, but it has a lot of obstacles to overcome. The late great comedian George Carlin once said that perhaps ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic ends up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials ...

Many plastic products are designed to be used only once, yet the material itself lasts for years. But a new strategy is ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic end up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials scientists ...

The disposal of plastics is a global problem. They are nearly indestructible in natural conditions but are discarded worldwide on a large scale. The world produces around 359 million metric tons of ...

From its early beginnings during and after World War II, the commercial industry for polymers – long chain synthetic molecules of which “plastics” are a common misnomer – has grown rapidly. In 2015, ...

In the lab, the team used two bacterial strains that worked in concert and completely broke down the material within just six ...

The creation of plastics from polymers is now an old industry. So, there are many methods, sub-methods, and specific synthetic variations now used by academics and industry scientists to create ...

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have discovered a new class of polymers as part of the work carried out within the ...

A group of Japanese chemists may have come up with a game-changing solution to ocean plastic pollution. The group has created a plastic using acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). The best part is that the ...